SEMINAR

ON

INDIAN LITERATUTE IN ENGLISH AND IN ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS

Submitted by

Harsha R

2ND MA ENGLISH

SSUS, Kalady

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NEWHISTORICIST READING OF SAKUNTALA BY ROMILA TAPAR

New historicism is a theory of post modernism analyses the literariness in history and

stresses its idea of learning literature in the historical context of author and period in which the

particular work has created. Stephan Greenblatt is one of the major establisher of New criticism

who made diverse critical studies on Renaissance literature. There are so many similarities with

Marxist concentrations and New Historicist concentration. Both of them shows interest in lost

histories which mainly centers on the marginalized, women and lower class people. Michel

Foucault is an other major figure in this, who enlarged the ideas of power, subjectivity,

epistemology, discipline, discourse, sexuality and government. Foucaults ideas helped to

revolutionalised and prompted eminents like Greenblatt, Louise Montrose, StephanOrgel to

restructuring the dominant system of history and representations.

Through Sakuntala, an essay published in 2011 Tapar aims to deal with the treatment of

theme of mythical Sakuntala in different spatiotemporal modes. According to her, the changes

can illumine the moment it flourishes and in return that moment can make changes in the theme

too. The essay comments on the areas like Indian notions on chastity, womens position in

society, power structures of society etc. Not only in this text, her other works are also a critique

of Brahmanic hegemony and its created power structures. In simple terms the work is an

interface between Indian literature and history. Re-reading of Sakuntala gives the idea of the

caste system and gender addresses of the period of Gupta reign in which the time of the work has

approximately located.

The first section of the essay Sakuntala deals with the links of culture, history and gender.

The second part elaborates the epic narrative tradition and the play Abhijnaanasakuntalam by

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Kalidasa. The third section talks about the changes in meanings that occurred during the time

over through different narratives. The fourth section of the essay deals with the continuation of

the tradition of the narrative in various popular forms. In the next section, translations and

adaptations of the story have discussed. British perceptions on Indian culture is discussed in sixth

and seventh chapter. Tagores essay on the play is the point of discussion in the last section.

Sakuntala is a mythical character in Mahabharata Adiparvam which have different

versions in adaptation and as expansion. She is a self-reliant woman in epic and changes in to

the pity constructive mold of Indian aesthetical approach of woman in the following

narratives.Kalidasas Abhijnaanasakuntalam is one of the reputed versions in that. In this

Sakuntala is depicted as a suffering woman who is mostly associated with the nature and the

tenderness that it inherits. Another version is in the German Romanticism of which she is

portrayed as a child of nature. Through certain cultural symbols, idioms and icons these

construction of a different needy culture formation is responsively visible.

Kalidasa apparently stereotyping the Indian woman in history especially through classic

images which imprints on every human mind easily. But unfortunately in terms of this

dramaturgy and literary quality Kalidasa Sakuntala is widely accepted as an articulation of

Indian culture. Dushyantas description of the qualities that a woman should hold is the best

example to take the attitude of patriarchy and its hidden dimensions on female body. It goes like

this, she should be like an uncut jewel, untasted honey, a flower no one has touched and a bud

that no fingers have plucked. Even in Kanva sages advices to the daughter too, this patriarchal

notions are openly described well. Tapars attempt of re-reading can be observed as a question

against the women representation over the centuries in literature and history. Gendered history is

readable by this critical analysis which perceives the past by the people through which they

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derive the future. It is not the depiction of the mythical characters in different times, but it is also

the analysis of the construction of history by that time. In short the writing of history have

relations with the literature. Historians search for literary works in different genres for

visualizing the past and for having different cultural interpretation.

The portrayal of Indian woman in the pativrata concept is well depicted in Kalidasa play.

Because she is always depicted with her friends Anasooya and Priyamvada and she is viewed as

an obedient bharatiyanari which we can see even among the contemporary society women. The

Hindu article quotes Kalidasa Sakuntala as doe-eyed, beautiful, learned and submissive. As per

the Indian concept it is better to be a servant in husband than living apart from him.

Several readings and historical comparisons and analogous readings of sources are

possible from each expansion and adaptation. For example, the story of the ring as a recognition

aspect seems to come from the Buddhist KattahariJataka. The play is no longer possible to

associate with the clan community life of Kanva and Sakuntala, meanwhile it is possible to set in

the present scenario. The play hints about the kingship and Brahmanic culture, administration

system, tax system and the agrhaaras of post war Gupta period.

The Sanskrit translations includes Kales 1898 version and Iswar Chandra Vidyasagars

translation. His assessment of Kalidasa was validated by Goethe, Shlegel, and William Jones

etc.Moniers play was praised by Kale as a good edited version. But the reception was very high

in the publication of AbhijnanaSakuntalam by MotilalaBanarsidass in which the elaborated plot,

characters, real theme has structured well which was accessible for both Indians and Europeans.

Chandra Rajans translation Kalidasa: The Loom of Time is a smoother translation which

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attained the western readers. The work tried to glorify the sanskriti and Sanskrit tradition with a

huge introduction and all.

Colonial and Post-colonial presentations or orientalist school of translation includes the

translations by Sir William Jones and Sir MonierMoneir Williams. By the end of the 19th century

Sakuntala had become a colonial cultural policy and it later awakened the self-identity of Indian

middle class. Even the morality related to eroticism came in to discussion in the later phase.

Jones publication was in 1789 prose translation and titled as Sacontala or The Fatal Ring.

The two issues faced by the translator in translation is the language and the uneasiness regarding

the Indian civilization in Tapars observation. The misunderstandings compelled him to avoid

some pages. Jones was trying to domesticate the play by Kalidasa by conforming and rejecting

some aspects like the too depiction of erotic especially the terms like drooping breasts. In

short Tapar tries to pass the message that colonizers need not to correct or edit the unpalatable

forms of civilization that are intangible to Europeans. Europeans are the admirers of the play but,

they fails to depict it in the real way.

Urdu prose poem Braj-Katha is an 1806 adaptation of Sakuntala by MirzaQazim Ali of

Culcutta. This is an entirely different adaptation in the Persian background. Next translation was

by Monier Williams in 1855, has entirely altered the central point of love of Sakuntala and

Dushyantan and tried to portray the Hindu Culture in it. Here we can analyze the colonial

attitude and it was published during the period of the shift from east India Company to British

monarch.

The constant interaction between the past and the present is the next important

point that Tapar discusses in detail. To her a wonderful work will be measurable to the prevailing

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theories and it can be restructured and analyzed in course of time. Through the retelling of the

narratives, we are able to understand different sides of the same work and the ideological

changes that society faced. According to Romila Tapar every narrative consciously or

unconsciously derives from the world view of an ideology. Even though the fictionalized

narrative cant be history, it can work like an indicator. She states her opinion about the Hindutva

ideologies flogging of dead horse in the Frontline cover story and she asks for the essential

deconstructed use of those historical baggage:

Indian history from the perspective of Hindutva ideology reintroduces

ideas that have long been discarded and are of little relevance to an

understanding of the past. The way in which information is put together,

and generalizations drawn from this, do not stand the test of analyses used

in the contemporary study of history. The rewriting of history according to

these ideas is not just to illumine the past but to allow an easier

legitimation from the pastor the political requirements of the present. The

Hindutva obsession with identity is not a problem with the early history of

India but arises out of an attempt to manipulate identities in contemporary

politics.

Tapar concludes her essay by stating that the self-reliant woman in Mahabharata has changed

into a romantic ideal of upper class high culture as in Kalidasas play. Some other translators

also views Sakuntala as an idol of pure maternal love and wife. In Buddhist and Jain versions

Sakuntala is an independent woman. This asserts that traditions nature to be selective in order to

highlight certain dominant ideologies and in order to subjugate certain unbiased statements. In

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the last part of the essay Tapar discusses about Tagores 1902 essay on Sakuntala. It is a critical

comparative view of the Shakespeares Tempest and Kalidasas Sakuntala.

AyyappaPanikkar through his notable critical work, Indian Narratology observes the

efforts of Indians to achieve the art of narration and analyses the models of narration which was

demarked from story tellers.

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Thapar. Romila, Sakunthala: Texts, Reading,Histories .Colombia University Press, New

York.2011. Print

Mukherji, Mridula; Mukherji, Aditya, eds. (2002). Communalisation of Education: The history
textbook controversy (PDF). New Delhi: Delhi Historians' Group.

www.wikipedia.com